A BLIND man who can neither hear nor speak has had a remarkable career
as an artist.

In an exhibition titled Viewfinder, painter and ceramicist Alan
Constable will showcase work spanning more than 20 years at Arts Project
Australia, the Northcote studio gallery where he has created the works.

Constable’s two-dimensional pastel drawings and oil paintings feature
solitary figures, animals and landscapes reinterpreted from old
magazines, while most of his three-dimensional works are painstakingly
detailed ceramic cameras.

Arts Project Australia project and development manager Cheryl Daye said
Constable’s style derived from the way he used the little sight he had
to focus on a particular part of a scene or subject.

“He looks at an image or object very closely with his face just inches
from it and then reinterprets it and makes it his own,” Dr Daye said.

“He has always had a fascination with light and a love of cameras.”
Dr Daye described Constable’s cameras as pop-art ceramic works.

She said unlike the originals, which have the clean, hard lines of
modern design technology, the ceramic cameras appeared soft and malleable.

She said Constable’s cameras were highly collectable and his works had
been exhibited widely throughout Australia.

Alan Constable’s Viewfinder is at Arts Project Australia, 24 High St,
Northcote, until June 1.